Peace Matters Today
Ten Fundamental Principles for a Just World Order
Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice presented to Kofi Annan, Queen Noor, Sheikh Hasina and Wim Kok by youngsters from Belgrade and Kosovo
On Saturday, May 15th Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the UN, Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasani of Bangladesh and Queen Noor of Jordan were presented The Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21th century. The Hague Appeal agenda demands ten
fundamental principles for a just world order:
1. Every Parliament should adopt a resolution prohibiting their government from going to war, like the Japanese article number nine.
2. All States should - unconditionally- accept compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.
3. Every Government should ratify the ICC and implement the Landmines Treaty.
4. All states should integrate the New Diplomacy, which is the partnership of governments international organizations and civil society.
5. The world cannot be by standers to humanitarian crises; every creative diplomatic means possible must be exhausted before resorting to force, then under United Nations authority.
6. Negotiations for a Convention Eliminating Nuclear Weapons should begin immediately.
7. The trade in small arms should be severely restricted.
8. Economic Rights must be taken as seriously as civil rights.
9. Peace education should be compulsory in every school in the world.
10. The plan for the Global Action to Prevent War should become the basis for a peaceful world order.
Hague Appeal President Cora Weiss says: "We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of commitments to insist on a war free future. The cries from Kosovo, East Timor, Colombia, Sudan, Somalia, Kashmir and Chechnya have been heard. We are ready to take action. We will take the Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice to our local communities, to our national governments and to the international community. We will tell Secretary General Kofi Annan that the United Nations cannot ignore us. The United Nations needs civil society to prevent the scourge of war. Every government should integrate the New Diplomacy." Young people from Belgrade and Kosovo handed over the Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice at the closing ceremony at Saturday May 15th in the congress building in The Hague.
A Closing Update on the Hague Appeal for Peace Conference
"We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of commitments demanding a war free future said Cora Weiss, president of the Hague Appeal for Peace conference. "The conference has been a huge success."
* Almost 10,000 people attended the Hague Appeal for Peace-conference. Most of these people stayed at the conference for four days.
* More than 100 nationalities were represented at The Hague Appeal for Peace-conference.
* Over 400 debates, working-groups and other activities took place at The Hague Appeal for Peace-conference, at times there were up to 25 meetings at the same time.
* World leaders and international figures like Nelson Mandela, The Dalai Lama, Graca Machel and Jimmy Carter addressed the conference with written statements. Aung San Suu Kyi (Birmese Nobel-peace prize laureate) addressed the conference with a video-statement. Present at the conference were a lot of Nobel Laureates such as Jody Williams, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jose Ramos Horta, Joseph Rotblat and Rigoberta Menchu Tum. Among the many other guests who attended the conference were Queen Noor of Jordan, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Wim Kok and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina.
* The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference was not only a political, but also a cultural manifestation of peace. Photo- and drawing-exhibitions, movies, concerts, theatre-plays from individuals and groups were taking place during the whole of the conference. Artists like Judy Collins, de Jonge, Mos Dev, Sarajevo Drum Orchestra, The Rotterdam Ballet and many others.
The Process Forward from The Hague....
The Agenda and Conference Reports
The Hague Appeal for Peace conference will launch the Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century.
The Hague Appeal is a multi-year campaign of which the conference represents the end of the first major stage. Developing networks, initiatives and strategies for implementation of the Agenda is the key goal of the conference and the beginning of the second stage of the Appeal.
Most participating groups have focused mandates towards which they are working and the Hague Appeal respects the independence of these organisations and mandates. Participating groups are not being asked to endorse a common platform or the many individual proposals except
voluntary, sign-on and campaign development processes.The core documents of the conference are the Conference Program and the Conference Edition of the Agenda. The 80-page Conference Program describes the literally hundreds of programs, initiatives, actions and campaigns being brought to the Hague Appeal by more than 700 participating non-governmental, civil society and international organizations. The 12-page Agenda presents the key themes, main actions and lists 50 agenda items.
The conference constitutes the last step in finalizing The Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice in the 21st Century. The conference is to elaborate and fine-tune the Agenda and to develop plans for implementing its provisions. Each session that takes place in the core of the conference, and many of those in the Global Forum, have direct relevance to one or more points of the Agenda. These sessions will forward their recommendations and plans of action to the organisers during and immediately after the conference. The Organising and Coordinating Committees will oversee the preparation of the Conference Report and finalisation of the Agenda which will be distributed worldwide. The Agenda has emerged from an intensive process of consultation between members of the Organising and Coordinating Committees and numerous other organisations and individual experts. The agenda items for the four strands of the Hague Appeal attempt to represent, as accurately as possible, the issues, initiatives and principles enunciated by the participating organisations. In several instances the specific language or style used for a given agenda item has been proposed by a coalition of organisations or has been reached after lengthy discussions with groups involved.
The Hague Appeal for Peace will serve as a launch pad for several major initiatives and campaigns. Several are listed in the draft Agenda and many others, it is hoped, will emerge from the conference itself. As stated above, it is the finalization of the goals of these initiatives, the development of networks, coalitions and strategies of implementation for these initiatives that is the essence of the Hague Appeal conference
- and will be the ultimate determinant of history´s judgment of the conference.
William R. Pace
Secretary-General, The Hague Appeal for Peace |